Toffee Squares

Toffee Squares

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 12-oz package semisweet chocolate pieces
1 cup almond brickle pieces or toasted chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside.
2. For crust, in a large mixing bowl beat the 3/4 cup butter and the brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Beat in the egg yolk. Stir in the flour and salt until well mixed. Using floured hands, press the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake about 20 minutes or until light browm. Cool in pan on wire rack while preparing the filling.
3. For filling, in a medium saucepan heat and stir the sweetened condensed milk and the 2 Tbsp butter over medium heat until bubbly. Cook and stir for 5 minutes more. (Mixture with thicken and become smooth.) Stir in the vanilla. Spread over the crust. Bake 12 to 15 minutes more or until top is golden brown.
4. Sprinkle evenly with chocolate pieces. Bake 1 to 2 minutes more or until chocolate pieces are shiny and melted. Remove from oven; set on a wire rack. Using a flexible spatula, immediately spread the chocolate evenly over baked layers. Sprinkle with brickle pieces. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cover and chill 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. Cut into squares.

Makes 36 bars.

I really like toffee. It's sweet but not overwhelming and sticky. The fact that it's wonderfully crunchy doesn't hurt either. This recipe was touted as, "Inspired by the 1990s coffeehouse craze, these irresistible layered delights continue to pop up in espesso bars across the country." I was intrigued to say the least.

The ingredients:


You might be noticing a trend: I tend to procrastinate. I started these really late and was glad that they're bars instead of cookies I would have to bake in batches.

The creamed butter and sugar always smells nice.

The finished dough:

Here's the dough after it's been pressed into the pan. I was glad to have an excuse to play with it a little.

The filling took quite a while to start bubbling. Once it did, it really got to going and had a strong, rich scent.

The finished filling looked and acted a lot like warm pudding.

It bubbled and browned nicely.

The chocolate pieces started to melt a little as I sprinkled them over the warm filling. I enjoyed dispersing them evenly though I now realize that all my work was a little silly, I spread it all out with a spatula anyway. I chalk that up to it being late and my tendency to get really particular when I'm tired.

I love playing with melted chocolate! Doesn't it look like a really shiny frosting?

The brickle pieces are awesome. I managed to eat only a minimal amount before applying them. Yum!

Since it was late and I was tired, I just covered the pan and stuck it in the refrigerator. When I went to cut them in the morning, they were HARD. It took quite a bit of work to get that knife in there and then it stood up on it's own.

I let it sit out for a while in hopes that it would soften just a little. I also switched to a very large, very sharp knife. That seemed to do the trick and it cut up quite nicely. I was really glad I thought to use my glass dish for this because we ruined a metal pan once while trying to cut up scotcheroos in a very similar incident.

Check out those layers!

The finished product: these bars are very rich so cut them small. The chocolate and brickle combination is great. The filling was a little too sweet for me but the bars on the whole seemed to be quite a hit with everyone else who tried them. I will probably make these again as they are an awesome companion to a warm cup of coffee.

Chocolate-Caramel Thumbprints

Chocolate-Caramel Thumbprints

1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
16 vanilla caramels, unwrapped
3 Tbsp whipping cream
1 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1 tsp shortening

1. Separate egg; place yolk and white in separate bowls. Cover and chill egg white until needed. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg yolk, milk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in the flour mixture. Cover and chill dough 2 hours or until easy to handle.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet; set aside. In a small saucepan heat and stir caramels and whipping cream over low heat until smooth. Set aside.
4. Lightly beat reserved egg white. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in egg white, then in pecans to coat. Place balls 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Using your thumb, make an indentation in the center of each cookie.
5. Bake 10 minutes or until edges are firm. Spoon melted caramel mixture into cookie centers. (If necessary, reheat caramel mixture to keep it spoonable.) Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
6. In another small saucepan heat and stir chocolate pieces and shortening over low heat until smooth. Let cool slightly. Drizzle chocolate mixture over tops of cookies. Let stand until set.

Makes 3 dozen.

This is yet another recipe out of The Ultimate Cookie Book from Better Homes and Gardens. I adore caramel in just about anything so I was so excited about these cookies and their pool of caramel.

The ingredients:

It's hard to believe but I had never separated an egg before this. I had seen it done a few times but this was my first time to do it myself. Here are the two halves of the egg.

This is also the first time I remember using milk in a cookie recipe. It made the dough's consistency just a little bit different than anything I'd seen before.

Here is the finished dough right before I covered it and stuck in the refrigerator. It smelled really chocolaty.

As I mentioned before, I love caramel. I like it in drinks, ice cream, and just about any dessert. Here are the allotted 16 caramels. I promise I only ate one caramel (although I definitely could have eaten most of the package).

They have you begin the caramel sauce just as you start working with the dough. I thought that might be a little long but I was wrong. It took a really long time for the caramels to melt into the cream. I was actually wondering if it would get done by the time the cookies did but it worked out in the end.

I'm not the greatest at eyeballing measurements. Every time I try I end up with either way too many cookies or these behemoth cookies that don't bake right. I rolled up all 36 at once that way I knew they were the right size.

The rolling was pretty messy. The dough wasn't super sticky like some and was denser in consistency than a normal dough. It was kind of like rolling up balls of fudge.

Here is a batch right before I popped it in the oven.

I ran out of pecans before I could coat the last six cookies. I guess I was a little overzealous in the coating of the first few. That meant that there were 3 cookies that were partially coated and 3 that had no pecans at all. My husband isn't a huge fan of nuts in general so I was okay with trying a few without any pecans. It turned out that the ones without pecans were pretty good as well.

The indentation from the thumbprint bakes up a little but still leaves a nice well for the caramel.

I almost forgot to take a picture of the finished caramel sauce. It was really nice to work with because it was fluid enough to drizzle but it sets up really solid.

The sauce smoothed out nicely into a shiny pool of caramel on each cookie.

The chocolate drizzling sauce is fairly standard. I couldn't get it to set up though. They looked and tasted fine but the chocolate didn't seem to resolidify.

The final product: these cookies are incredible. They are chewy, caramelly and all sorts of delicious. When they are fresh out of the oven , the pecans are the perfect crunchy complement to the moistness of the cookie and the gooeyness of the caramel and chocolate. The next day the cookies take on much more flavor of the pecans and remind me a lot more of a chocolate turtle. When I make these again (if I plan on them making it out of my kitchen), I will try switching the chocolate pieces out for chocolate candy coating to make them more conducive to stacking.

Tomato & Spinach Pasta Toss

Tomato & Spinach Pasta Toss

2 cups rotini or penne pasta, uncooked
1/2 lb. hot or mild Italian sausage
6 oz. baby spinach leaves (7 cups)
1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
1 cup Kraft Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese
2 Tbsp Kraft 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese

1. Cook pasta as directed on package.
2. Meanwhile, crumble meat into large deep skillet. Cook on medium-high heat 10 to 12 minutes or until cooked through, stirring occasionally; drain. Add spinach and tomatoes; cook 2 minutes or until spinach is wilted, stirring occasionally. Remove fron heat; cover to keep warm.
3. Drain pasta; return to pot. Add meat mixture and cheeses; toss lightly.

Makes 6 servings.

This is a recipe from the Spring 2008 edition of Food & Family from Kraftfoods. The magazine is obviously meant to be one big advertisement for their products but if you need a quick and simple recipe, it will definitely do the trick. Here is a recipe that combines a lot of my favorite foods so I was excited to try it.

The ingredients:

I couldn't find anything but the links version of Italian sausage so I used them and just removed the meat from their casings. I'm sure you could just cook the links and then cut them up for this recipe but it takes just a bit longer to cook them that way and I was in a hurry.

It's always fun to cook down fresh spinach. Luckily I thought ahead this time and used my biggest skillet so I had plenty of room for all this spinach. I'm not sure exactly how much spinach I actually used as I had a 10 oz pack and wasn't really feeling like measuring things.

Here is the cooked down spinach/tomato/meat mixture. It smelled really good.

I had some time to kill before the pasta was done so I covered the meat mixture so it wouldn't get cold before putting it all together. Looking back now I see that the recipe even includes this step which makes feel a little bit better since I just thought I had planned poorly.

The cooked pasta, meat mixture and cheeses ready to be mixed.

The final product: this meal is super simple and very good. I like everything about this meal: the spinach, cheese, meat, tomatoes; it's all good. The only bad thing about this meal is the clean up as the cheese is super stringy and sticky. Next time I think I won't break the meat up as much because I like larger chunks.

Best Pizza Ever!!!

I didn't make this pizza. Nor do I have the recipe. But I did think it was necessary to put on here because it is the best pizza ever. While in Chicago, Tyler and I visited a Giordano's pizza. If you are ever in the area, you absolutely have to try it.

They specialize in stuffed pizza. We ordered the small which is supposed to feed 1-2. I have no idea who would be able to finish one of these on their own though. This thing was huge!!

We ordered the Tropical Delight which includes pineapple, canadian bacon and a whole lot of cheese. This picture shows off the incredible cheese layer.

Check out the string of cheese. Yum.

It was sweet, cheesy, and completely delicious. Just looking at the picture makes me want another one right now.

Lasagna Casserole

Lasagna Casserole

1 pound campagnelle
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 pound ground beef, pork, and veal mix
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, grated
1 (28-oz) can Italian plum tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, shredded or torn
A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil. When it boils, salt the water liberally, add the pasta, and cook just shy of al dente, 6 to 7 minutes; there should still be a good bite left to it.

While the pasta water comes to a boil, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground meat and break it up into small bits; brown it lightly, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the carrots, onions, and garlic; season with salt and pepper; and cook for 5 to 6 minutes to soften. Add the tomatoes to the pan and use a wooden spoon to crush them up. Add the stock. Simmer for 15 minutes, then fold in the basil and parsley.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Drain the pasta and place in a large bowl. Add the sauce and ricotta cheese and mix well, then transfer to a casserole dish and top with Parmigiano cheese. Bake for 15 minutes to get the top a bit crusty.

I was excited about this recipe. It's from Rachel Ray's Just In Time cookbook. I got this cookbook a couple of Christmases ago and nearly every recipe we tried out of it has been really good. I had to do quite a bit of tweaking though simply because of availability of ingredients so I can only say that this meal is loosely based on her recipe.

The ingredients:


I didn't find the ground beef, pork, and veal mix at the grocery store so I just used regular ground beef.

While I had the grater out to grate the carrots, I decided it would be easier to grate the onion as well. I only had half an onion so that's all I used.

We couldn't find the Italian plum tomatoes at the store either so I used Italian seasoned stewed tomatoes instead. It says to crush the tomatoes which was pretty difficult.

I intended to use fresh basil for this but the basil I had in my refrigerator went bad. I used dried instead which will result in a less fresh flavor but I didn't have much of an option. I am pretty bad about things like this. I am getting better, but I often will forget to use something, or will put off a meal until one or more of the ingredients goes bad.

Here the sauce is simmering. The smell was very familiar to both Tyler and me but neither of us could put our finger on what exactly it smelled like. Whatever it was, it smelled good.

The pasta was done at least 5 minutes before the sauce so I decided to mix it with the cheese beforehand to prevent it from sticking to itself. The recipe calls for 2 cups but we could only find 1 3/4 cup containers at the store so that's what we used.

Here is the casserole all mixed up and ready to go into the oven. It was almost too much for my casserole dish but luckily just fit. I don't have anything bigger so I was relieved.

The final product: the casserole reminded me a lot of goulash. It was good but I was honestly expecting something a little more exotic from Rachel Ray. The issue may not have been with her recipe, though, and probably had more to do with all of my alterations. I will probably make this again but will definitely try to use fresh basil; I think that would increase the fresh factor.